Sexual scandals are a call to return to God, remarks Spanish cardinal

Madrid, Spain, Mar 23, 2010 / 12:02 pm (CNA).- The prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Antonio Canizares, explained that the sexual scandals committed by some clergy members are a call for the entire Church to be more and more holy.

After receiving an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Avila, the cardinal offered an analysis “based on faith” of the recent events. The cases of sexual abuse are a call to “all of us to fix our gaze again upon the Lord and be converted. This is the future of humanity, which without God has no future.”

According to the Spanish daily, “La Razon,” Cardinal Canizares also criticized the media for their efforts to silence discussion about God. “The great hope of the love of God is above everything,” he said, “and the Cross of Christ is salvation and victory.”

During his remarks, the cardinal also praised the “important work carried about by the Catholic University” in promoting a new humanism.

He then denounced the “destructive and insidious relativism” present in Western society, noting that the essential focus of the University is “the issue of truth, something which is fundamental for man.”